Youth leagues try to rein in ’bad news parents’ BUFFALO GROVE, Ill. (AP) — No parent here has rushed onto a playing field to jump a referee who made an unpopular call. No adult has gotten angry and slugged or pushed a coach or a young player, as has happened elsewhere. Nor have there been any of those embarrassing sideline brawls you sometimes see posted on online video sites. At least nobody’s admitting to it. Still, parent behavior in this quiet suburb north of Chicago has been questionab...

House rejects farm bill, 62 Republicans vote no WASHINGTON (AP) — The House rejected a five-year, half-trillion-dollar farm bill Thursday that would have cut $2 billion annually from food stamps and let states impose broad new work requirements on those who receive them. Those cuts weren’t deep enough for many Republicans who objected to the cost of the nearly $80 billion-a-year food stamp program, which has doubled in the past five years. The vote was 234-195 against the bill, with 62 Repu...

Stocks extend slide as China heightens anxiety NEW YORK (AP) — For investors, there was no place to go on Thursday. A day after the Federal Reserve roiled Wall Street when it said it could reduce its aggressive economic stimulus program later this year, financial markets around the world plunged. A slowdown in Chinese manufacturing and reports of a credit squeeze in the world’s second-biggest economy heightened worries. The global sell-off began in Asia and quickly spread to Europe and the...

Report alleges misconduct in BP caseNEW ORLEANS (AP) — A lawyer working for the court-appointed administrator to review claims as part of the multibillion-dollar settlement over BP’s Gulf oil spill has been accused of receiving payments from a law firm representing a claimant, allegations that were discussed in a closed-door meeting Thursday with a federal judge overseeing the case, a BP official with direct knowledge of the situation told The Associated Press. The BP official, ...

VA shows progress on backlog WASHINGTON (AP) — The Veterans Affairs Department is chipping away at a massive inventory of disability claims for veterans, reducing the number of claims considered backlogged by about 13 percent in recent weeks. Republican lawmakers are skeptical that the trend will continue, but they’ve been unable to agree on a solution to a problem that has become a major headache for the Obama administration. The VA pays disability benefits to veterans w...

Fed suggests it’s closer to slowing bond purchases WASHINGTON (AP) — In a move that could send interest rates higher, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke ended weeks of speculation Wednesday by saying the Federal Reserve will likely slow its bond-buying program this year and end it next year because the economy is strengthening. The Fed’s purchases of Treasury and mortgage bonds have helped keep long-term interest rates at record lows. A pullback in its extraordinary $85 billion-a-month program would li...

Ohio woman, allegedly enslaved, spent time in jail CLEVELAND (AP) — A mentally disabled mother authorities said was enslaved for two years along with her daughter spent time in jail this year after pleading guilty to beating the girl, but her attorney told a judge that her captors forced her to do it. Court records show that a child endangering complaint was filed against the woman in October 2012 just a day after she was charged with shoplifting and asked to be jailed because three people had...

Compromise among senators eyed on border security WASHINGTON (AP) — After secretive talks, key senators expressed optimism Wednesday night that they were closing in on a bipartisan agreement to toughen the border security requirements in immigration legislation that also offers a path to citizenship to millions living in the country illegally. Under the emerging compromise, the government would grant legal status to immigrants living in the United States unlawfully at the same time the additi...

As fires rage, feds cut funding on prevention COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) — As the West battles one catastrophic wildfire after another, the federal government is spending less and less on its main program for preventing blazes in the first place. A combination of government austerity and the ballooning cost of battling the ruinous fires has taken a bite out of federal efforts to remove the dead trees and flammable underbrush that clog Western forests. The U.S. Forest Service says that n...

Oversight board concerned about NSA surveillance WASHINGTON (AP) — The chairman of the federal oversight board that President Barack Obama said will meet with him to discuss the National Security Agency’s secret surveillance program said Wednesday that the group has numerous concerns about the operation and plans to publish a report after a full inquiry. David Medine, who heads the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, told The Associated Press that board members have a “broad range o...

Car quality dinged by tech glitches, survey finds DETROIT (AP) — Car buyers increasingly want high-tech features like voice recognition and navigation. But they’re not very forgiving of the car company when those systems fail. The top complaints in J.D. Power’s closely-watched survey of new vehicle owners, released Wednesday, involved technologies that drivers are clamoring for. Voice recognition systems either didn’t recognize commands or didn’t work at all. Bluetooth systems had trouble con...

Obama making plans to tackle global warming WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama is planning a major push using executive powers to tackle the pollution blamed for global warming in an effort to make good on promises he made at the start of his second term. “We know we have to do more — and we will do more,” Obama said Wednesday in Berlin. Obama’s senior energy and climate adviser, Heather Zichal, said the plan would boost energy efficiency of appliances and buildings, expand renewa...

Former TWA Flight 800 investigators want new probe MINEOLA, N.Y. (AP) — Former investigators are pushing to reopen the probe into the 1996 crash of TWA Flight 800, saying new evidence points to the often-discounted theory that a missile strike may have downed the jumbo jet. The New York-to-Paris flight crashed July 17, 1996, minutes after it took off from John F. Kennedy International Airport, killing all 230 people aboard. The effort to reopen the probe is being made in tandem with the releas...

Dem senator presses Pentagon on Guantanamo feeding WASHINGTON (AP) — The force-feeding of terror suspects at the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, runs counter to international standards, medical ethics and the practices at American prisons, the head of the Senate Intelligence Committee said Wednesday in pressing the Pentagon to establish a more humane treatment. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., who traveled to Guantanamo earlier this month, wrote in a letter to Defense Secretar...

Actor James Gandolfini dies in Italy at age 51 LOS ANGELES (AP) — James Gandolfini, whose portrayal of a brutal, emotionally delicate mob boss in HBO’s “The Sopranos” helped create one of TV’s greatest drama series and turned the mobster stereotype on its head, died Wednesday in Italy. He was 51. Gandolfini died while on holiday in Rome, the cable channel and Gandolfini’s managers Mark Armstrong and Nancy Sanders said in a joint statement. No cause of death was given. “He was a genius,” sa...

Senators seek cost cuts for F-35 fighter jet WASHINGTON (AP) — Senators sought cost-cutting opportunities Wednesday in the Pentagon’s $400 billion program for the next-generation F-35, a fighter jet with a troubled testing record that military leaders said America couldn’t afford not to build. Chairing the hearing, Sen. Dick Durbin lamented that the F-35 already has cost taxpayers billions more than what Congress signed up for more than a decade ago. The Illinois Democrat asked military ...

FBI ends Michigan search for Hoffa’s remains OAKLAND TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) — Beneath a swimming pool, under a horse farm and now a weed-grown field north of Detroit. For at least the third time in a decade, FBI agents grabbed shovels and combed through dirt and mud in the search for Jimmy Hoffa’s remains or clues to the disappearance of the former Teamsters boss. Once again, the search was futile. “Certainly, we’re disappointed,” Detroit FBI chief Robert Foley told reporters Wednesday as ...

Bipartisan proposal on student loans circulating WASHINGTON (AP) — Students applying for financial aid for the coming school year could find some comfort in a bipartisan student loan compromise taking shape in the Senate that would prevent interest rates from doubling and set a single rate each year for undergraduate students, rich or poor. Interest rates, which would be tied to the financial markets, would rise slightly to 3.8 percent for low-income students receiving new subsidized Staffor...

Men’s Wearhouse ousts founder, pitchman Zimmer NEW YORK (AP) — Men’s Wearhouse doesn’t like the way its founder looks anymore. The men’s clothier said Wednesday that it fired executive chairman and face of the company George Zimmer, 64, who has appeared in many of its TV commercials with the slogan “You’re going to like the way you look. I guarantee it.” The company announced the move in a terse statement that gave no reason for the abrupt firing of Zimmer, who built Men’s Wearhouse Inc. f...

Gov’t report: Smooth launch unsure for health law WASHINGTON (AP) — There’s no guarantee that President Barack Obama’s health care law will launch smoothly and on time, congressional investigators say in the first in-depth independent look at its progress. But in a report to be released Wednesday, the congressional Government Accountability Office also sees positive signs as the Oct. 1 deadline approaches for new health insurance markets called exchanges to open in each state — in many cases ...